A high brightness electron beam with low energy spread is essential for a free electron laser intended to operate in the wavelength region beyond the UV. Several hundreds of amperes peak current, an emittance of several π mm mrad or less and an energy spread of a few tenth of a percent are required. At present, photocathode linacs are the only devices that can produce such beams. The success of such a linac is strongly dependent on the possibility to develop a high-efficient, stable photocathode and a high-power, stable drive laser used to illuminate the cathodes. In this paper we present some result on our photocathode research as well as our drive laser developments.